ROBERT MASTERS

MANAGING DIRECTOR

An experienced, qualified and strategic thinking entrepreneur with a long list of skills credits and attributes to his name, Robert has most notably been involved in the technology, bio security and sustainable energy sectors as well as in the action sports and aviation industries.

Robert’s sharpest focus is on achieving cost effective business objectives by using a range of new and innovative digital technologies, namely Blockchain architectures, SAP, Primavera, Galileo and CAD technologies, combined with proven tools, methodologies and adaptive tactics. Robert specializes in international business, with the goal of achieving positive cross cultural and social impacts. His areas of expertise are in business development, financial risk management, capital growth, and business process and systems enhancement, which he has successfully delivered to a range of global tier one publicly listed companies, their CEOs and Boards of Directors. Robert’s clients have included Bechtel, ENI, Shell, Maersk, Chevron and Texaco.

Robert thrives on solving problems, consulting and collaborating to achieve pragmatic solutions. In 2013 Roberts previous entity brought a Digital Currency ATM network to Australia that utilised advanced biometrics and palm scanning technologies, this entity subsequently went on to be a founding partner of ADCA (Australian Digital Commerce Association) the countries leading industry council adca.asn.au. Robert holds qualifications in a range of fields including international business, management, leadership, international law, ocean governance, big data, finance and economics, specializing in the offshore energy industry, high risk operations and community resilience including disaster relief, response and preparedness.

READ MORESHOW LESS

JAMES LEFTWICH, IDSA

CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER

James has a proven track record in developing successful products, services, systems, brands and intellectual property. Trained as an industrial designer, he has over 30 years of broad design experience in the area of human interface, products, equipment, devices, mobile operating systems and apps, software development, branding and identity in the fields of consumer, medical, automotive, telecommunication, industrial, military, social, and gaming. He is also the co-developer of the popular iPhone and iPad game app DodgeDot®, which was on Apple’s ‘What’s Hot’ list.

READ MORESHOW LESS

STEPHEN DOSS

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

Steve brings over 22 years of Engineering and Product development experience both as an individual contributor and as a strong technical leader. He has led as a Director of Engineering, a team of 25 Software Engineers and QA Engineers to bring a successful remote desktop mobile software app and web service to over 5+ million customers. His technical capabilities span full stack development from mobile application development, to high availability back-end infrastructures built on both AWS and Google App Engine.

He is also the co-developer of the popular iPhone and iPad
game app DodgeDot®, which was on Apple’s ‘What’s Hot’ list. He has experience in building redundant, highly available database systems comprising either traditional SQL (Mysql, Sql Server, etc.), as well as no-sql schema-less databases such as (mongoDB, SimpleDB, DynamoDB, Cassandra and others.) With multiple patents, he also brings innovation and thrives in combining multiple and sometimes disjointed sources into a new product or design.

READ MORESHOW LESS

CHRISTINE SATCHELL PHD

CHIEF RESEARCHER

Christine is a Senior Research Fellow in the area of mobile and ubiquitous computing with a focus on distributed digital identity management systems. She is influential in her field of Human Computer Interaction with over 87 peer reviewed publications that have helped define mobile and distributed spaces in terms of the sorts of interactions they generate in light of the cultural, social and political conditions in which they are deployed.

This research has been published at leading conferences including CHI (significant because its highly competitive entry threshold accepts only research that makes a significant contribution to the advancement of new technology), Ubicomp (Tokyo), SIGGRAPH (LA) and The Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. It was also a precursor to the book ‘From Social Butterfly to Urban Citizen: Urban Informatics, Social Media, Ubiquitous Computing, and Mobile Technology to Support Citizen Engagement’ published by MIT Press for which she is co-editor and co-author.

She was the co-founder and director of Swarm Systems which is developing a series of patented mobile phone prototypes and distributed digital identity management systems that puts the user back in control of their personal identity data. Swarm has featured in New Scientist, Cosmos, Gizmodo and Wired, hundreds of blogs and won numerous design awards. Swarm Systems was recently acquired by Blue Chip Vision. Christine has worked extensively in the hybrid industry/research space including projects for Sony Computer Science Labs in Paris and Tokyo, Nokia Research Labs in Norway, Microsoft Research Labs, The Red Cross, Novell, The Australian Communications and Media Authority and Xbox. In 2014 Christine was awarded a three year DECRA grant by the the Acting Prime Minister which was used to establish the ‘Digital Technology for Personal Safety After Dark’ research centre at The Urban informatics Research Lab at QUT.

Christine is a regular commentator on issues relating to technology for major commercial media platforms and her Keynotes Addresses include the International Safe Cities Conference, The International Urban Design Conference, and The Participatory Engagement Conference. Program Committee Member for leading HCI conferences including Associate Chair of Design for CHI 2013, 2014, 2015; Technical Program Co-Chair for Communities and Technology 2013 in Munich; Technical Program Co-Chair for Horizon CSCW in China 2011; Co-Organizer of Pervasive Computing and Environmental Sustainability, 2008; and Technical Program Chair for OzCHI. She is a Board Member for the Committee of the National Capital Authority in Canberra; and an Advisor for the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) on their Digital Identity and The Internet Policy. She is also the runner up in The Australian Women in Technology of the Year Awards.

READ MORESHOW LESS

ROBERT VAGO

DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING

Robert brings over 15yrs professional experience and leadership, having earned a scholarship with the University of Wollongong, Australia’s Faculty of Informatics as a research associate in the field of Medical Informatics and Decision Support Systems in Healthcare.

Robert published several research papers and contributing to the now widely recognized National PBS system, he was headhunted as a consultant with KAZ group (the largest Australian owned technology consulting group at the time).
Leading several teams within the data and analytics practice through Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse commercial products, other specialists consulting roles for project development included for the multiple for Australian government, Zurich, Qantas and Pfizer among others.
Robert was lead Information Architect and Sales Engineer for a business intelligence and analytics company responsible for the implementation of the product across many tier 1 organizations throughout Australia. Robert has delivered several high-profile projects as the lead solution architect both freelancing and for SMS Consulting and as a result was considered the thought leader in designing large scale data warehouse solutions particularly around Relational Online Analytical Processing Systems.
Robert has held a directorships with Astute Informatics, a mid-sized consultancy operating out of Canberra, Australia as the Director of Professional Services where he grew the practice by 80% having secured the company several large Australian government contracts. Robert held the Director of Technology Position at Resurg Group, a niche analytics company specializing in distributed finance networks and POS networks and is the Founder and Managing Director of Blue Chip Vision’s channel partner KinetIQ, a data integration business specializing in Data Visualization.

READ MORESHOW LESS

ADVISORS

ERIC BENZ

Eric has over 10 years of experience working in and around Financial Technology. He has delivered innovative SaaS systems for some of today’s biggest institutions around payments, identity, and banking infrastructure. Eric has been in the Blockchain space for the past few years and has been responsible for helping build some of today’s most exciting Blockchain businesses. He is currently Managing Director for Cryptopay, which has been one of the longest running bitcoin exchanges, merchant processors, and pre-paid bitcoin card issuers.

RONALD TUCKER

Ronald Tucker is the Founder and President of the Australian Digital Commerce Association, the peak body for blockchain businesses in Australia, and Founder of the Global Blockchain Forum, the international body representing trade associations from the US, Canada, the UK, UAE, Singapore, India, Japan and Australia. Mr Tucker launched and still resides as Chairman at Bit Trade Australia in April 2013, and its sister company Bit Trade Labs seeing successes as a Blockchain development consultancy. Ron also oversaw and led the successful industry response to the Digital Currency Inquiry called by the Senate Economics References Committee in 2015, organised the two-day Global Digital Currency Conversation forum during the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Brisbane 2014, and currently is working with Australian and Chinese government, and industry stakeholders, on the China-Australia Blockchain Alliance initiative.

MARC KENIGSBERG

Marc has been involved in Bitcoin since 2013 and has 18 years experience in online marketing. He is one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency affiliates and the founder of BlockSmarter and BitcoinChaser. Marc is one of the world’s leading ICO advisors and works with various ICO’s and blockchain businesses, is a regular speaker at conferences around the world and contributor to industry leading publications.